


12. Nightmare

by love_write_edit_sleep



Series: Child's Play (DBH 31 Fic Challenge) [12]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bed-Wetting, Fluff, Gen, Kid!RK900, M/M, Nightmares, We finally get a Richard backstory y'all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-18
Updated: 2018-08-18
Packaged: 2019-06-29 08:32:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15725751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/love_write_edit_sleep/pseuds/love_write_edit_sleep
Summary: Gavin wakes up to an unexpected sight, and tries to reassure Richard that nightmares aren’t real. Richard begs to differ.





	12. Nightmare

_“We need to get to Hart Plaza!”_

_“And me. Take me too.”_

_“Markus is there with other deviants, we have to shift the balance of power!”_

_“I can help, please… Take me too.”_

_“And then… we will all be free!”_

_“I can’t break the wall… Please hear me… The wall…”_

_“We must go now!”_

_“No! No! Don’t leave me! I’m here! I’m right here!”_

_“We’re with you, Connor!”_

_“I’m right here! Please! I’m right here!”_

* * *

Richard shot up with a cry, gasping as he clutched at his chest, LED spinning red. His thirium pump was going too fast… too fast, it was… it was going to break. His stress levels grew rapidly as he tried to ground himself, looking around the room.

He was home, he wasn’t _there…_ He was home… With Gavin.

“Kadie…” Richard panicked, feeling around for his beloved cat plush, only for his hand to fall onto something wet. He gasped, pulling his hand away and looking down.

Oh, fuck…

_Fuck…_

The sheets, the duvet and his pyjamas were soaked through. Richard quickly scrambled out of bed and grabbed a new pair of pyjamas before running to the bathroom. He quickly showered off his legs and changed before returning to his room and pulling the sheets off the bed.

He struggled with the sheets as he dragged them out the room and down the hall, whimpering slightly as he did so. Gavin was going to be so cross if he found out-

“Richard…?”

_Shit…_

Richard looked up to find said man standing a few feet away, rubbing the sleep out his eyes.

“Hey, what’re you doing, bud?” He asked, freezing when he took in the sheets. “Are those-?”

“I went to toilet in the bed…” Richard whimpered, wiping his eyes and tears started to fall.

“Hey, no, hey, don’t cry, it’s okay.” Gavin whispered softly, crossing the distance between them and kneeling down in front of the boy, pulling him into his arms. Richard buried his face in Gavin’s shoulder. “Hey, you were asleep, you couldn’t help it. If you gotta go, you gotta go, you know?”

“But-”

“I’ve done it before, as a kid and an adult. Most of the time, I was hungover, but you get what I mean. We’ve all done it, don’t be embarrassed. I’m not gonna get mad.”

“You’re not?”

“Course not, it’ll come right out in the washing machine.” Gavin smiled, pulling away. “You okay?”

“Yeah…”

“Did you clean yourself up okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, then let’s clean these sheets, alright?”

“Okay.” Richard nodded. Gavin smiled reassuringly as he took the sheets.

Kadie fell from the pile.

“Oh, no…” Richard whispered, picking Kadie up by the ear. “She’s wet now…”

“That’s okay, we can wash her.” Gavin took Kadie and added her to the pile before guiding Richard down the hall and to the washing machine.

“Won’t she bweak…?”

“Nope. Kids toys are designed to get dirty and be cleaned. She’ll be fine. We just need to take the microwave bit out.” Gavin assured him, pushing the sheets into the machine. He then took the microwavable bag out of Kadie’s velcroed back and put Kadie in too.

“Pwomise?”

“I promise.” Richard’s LED flickered to yellow. Gavin thought for a moment as he poured fabric softener and conditioner into the machine tray. “You know… sometimes when I do that… It’s because I had a bad dream. Did you have a bad dream?”

“Yeah…” Richard shifted. Gavin started the machine and washed his hands before turning back to Richard, kneeling in front of him.

“You wanna talk about it?”

“No.” Richard whispered. His throat suddenly hurt, his chest ached, his eyes watered… Was he lying? He didn’t know. “I don’t know…”

“It’s okay, you don’t have to… Nightmares aren’t real, you’re safe here.”

“They are real…” Richard whispered, a soft whimper escaping his throat.

“They’re not, Richard, they’re just bits and pieces our mind puts together, or a memory, but it’s not real, it’s not really happening-”

“But it fewlt like it was!” Richard’s LED snapped back to red as he suddenly burst into tears and lashed out, punching Gavin in the arm, shocking the man. “Connor fowgot me! He saved all the andwoids and he fowgot me! I was in the next room, I twied to tell him, I couldn’t bweak the wall down and he left and I was still twapped!” He screamed, still trying to hit Gavin, punching him and smacking him.

“Richard-”

“I watched him save evewy single andwoid except me!” Richard cried, hitting Gavin’s chest repeatedly. “He didn’t debiate me! He didn’t see me and he didn’t fwee me so they kept testing me and it huwt, Gabin! I was fowced to obey when evewyone else was fwee!”

“Richard…”

“He fowgot me…” Richard sobbed, falling against Gavin’s chest. Gavin caught him, pulling him close as the boy trembled violently, sobbing his little heart out. Gavin blinked back tears of his own.

Fuck, that was why he was so scared of being sent to CyberLife.

_Cyberlife…_

The drawing. A few days back, Gavin realized, when Richard had been drawing, he’d drawn his nightmare, his trauma… And Gavin had let it slide. The event was clearly traumatising the boy, and Gavin dread to imagine how Richard had felt keeping it to himself for 2 years.

Richard had never told him any of this, never hinted it, never mentioned it.

Had he had nightmares back then?

“No-one is _ever_ going to forget you again…” Gavin whispered, pressing his forehead against Richard’s. “Whether you’re a kid or my partner, whether you’re deviant or not, no-one’s going to leave you behind again. I promise.”

“I’m scawed…” Richard sobbed. “I don’t wanna be alone…”

“You aren’t, and you won’t be. You’re in our family, Richard, you have been for 2 years. You, me, Connor, Hank, Matthew, and now Jerry. Then we got distant family, like Elijah and Chloe, and Markus and Simon and Josh and North, and then there’s Felicia and Skulker and Suki, and Daniel the Fish. You’ll always have at least one of us, and I promise you’ll always have me.”

“I’m sowwy fow hitting you…” Richard whimpered.

“It’s okay, you didn’t hurt me if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Bullshit. Gavin knew there were fucking bruises already.

“Can I sleep with you tonight…? Pwease, Gabin…?” Richard pleaded. “I don’t wanna have a dweam again…”

“Hey, yeah, course you can.” Gavin rubbed Richard’s back as he stood with him and carried him to the spare room. “He didn’t leave you on purpose, you know…?”

“I know…” Richard yawned as Gavin gently lay him down in the bed and scooted in next to him.

“Here,” Gavin pushed a plush cat into Richard’s hands. “I-I know he’s not Kadie but Toby helps me sleep sometimes, he’ll help you too.”

“T’ank you, Gabin…” Richard whispered, nuzzling closer to Gavin. “Gabin?”

“Yeah?”

“T’ank you fow debiating me…” Richard muttered. “Love you…”

“I-I love you too, Richard…” Gavin whispered, pressing a soft kiss to Richard’s forehead before pulling out his phone. “You’ll never be forgotten again, I promise.”

* * *

_“Hank… I-I messed up._

_Gavin called me. I abandoned Richard._

_When I deviated Matthew and the other androids, when we overthrhew the balance… I left Richard… He called out to me, tried to break the barrier and reach out to me, but he didn’t break through, I didn’t hear him… I left him there, in the room next to us, for CyberLife to run tests on and force to obey…_

_How do I fix this, Hank? You always know what to say, I need you to say something! I need help, Hank…_

_How do I fix this…?”_


End file.
